Well, amidst all of the stellar and superlative Tales and Stories now
filtering in from Moffet Field, I have one small bummer.
Taking our cue from a recent long and nearly-immortal thread on
Oscilloscopes; sub-Tektronix scopes; sub-sub rack-mount Tek scopes -
Marvin and I concocted a nice visual in-joke. I mounted a working RM503
in the rack with my PDP 11/44 and waited for one of the Listmembers to
notice it and laugh. And I waited.... and waited....
Nobody got it! O well....
If Tony Duell had made his way across the pond this year - *he* would
have laughed! maybe...
But anyway, a Pretty Good Time was had by all, though there was not much
working Big Iron on display - partially understandable when the Logistics
of hauling and loading/unloading and setting up larger systems is taken
into account. And I have the scars and bruises to attest to that.
But next year I'm leaving the scope at home.
Cheerz
John
Forwarding this to the classic cmp list 'cause I know some of you are
interested, but I'm not an active reader of this list.
> For anyone interested, here is the 0.3 snapshot of my alpha-micro am-100
> emulator.
>
> http://www.otterway.com/am100
>
> This is the first to boot AMOS and run BASIC! Here's the $README...
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> -------------------
>
> /* AM-100.doc (c) Copyright Mike Noel, 2001-2002 */
>
>
> PREFACE
>
> This software is an emulator for the Alpha-Micro AM-100 computer. It is
> copyright by Michael Noel and licensed for non-commercial hobbyist use
under
> terms of the "Q public license", an open source certified license.
>
> There exist known serious discrepancies between this software's internal
> functioning and that of a real AM-100, as well as between it and the
WD-1600
> manual describing the functionality of a real AM-100, and even between it
> and the comments in the code describing what it is intended to do! Notice
> that this software hasn't reached the 1.0 version yet. In fact it's a
long
> way from it. It's not beta; it's alpha. Use it at your own risk!
>
> Reliability aside, it is not the intent of the copyright holder to use
this
> software to compete with current or future Alpha-Micro products, and no
> such competing application of the software will be supported.
>
> Alpha-Micro and other software that may be run on this emulator are not
> covered by the above copyright or license and must be legally obtained
from
> an authorized source.
>
> As this is written I have permission from Alpha-Micro to distribute AMOS
5.0
> with the emulator so you can get that from me too - but it is subject to
> their terms and conditions.
>
>
> INSTALLATION
>
> Preferred installation is to compile the source on the target machine.
> Tested targets include Red Hat Linux (6.1, 6.2, 7.0, 7,1, and 7.2) and
> Microsoft Windows 98SE and 2000 using Cygwin 1.3.12-2 and 1.3.13-1.
Frankly,
> Windows 98 is not a good target. Windows 2000 and Linux are both OK.
>
> Step Zero. You have at least 12 megs free space - right?
>
> We will assume you have downloaded the source and
> AMOS into a directory on your (running, known good)
> linux or cygwin system; those files being
>
> ./AM-100-0.3.tgz
> ./amos50.tgz
>
> Step One. Create a sub directory and untar the source.
>
> mkdir am
> cd am
> mv ../AM-100-0.3.tgz .
> mv ../AMOS50.tgz
> tar -xzf AM-100-0.3.tgz
> tar -xzf amos50.tgz
>
> Step Two. Compile the source.
>
> make
>
> Step Three. Run it!
>
> ./AM-100
>
> Step Four. What's this message...
>
> "boot failed! Problem with 'dsk0-container' ?"
>
> dsk0-container is the name of the file that represents DSK0
> in the emulator. Similarly, dsk1-container represents DSK1,
> and dsk2-container and dsk3-container do the obvious. Each
> container is 10 megs (19980 blocks).
>
> Since you might already have a dsk0-container, I've packaged
> the AMOS release as dsk1-container. If you have enough free
> space just copy dsk1-container to dsk0-container - if not
> rename instead.
>
> Then run it again!
>
> cp dsk1-container dsk0-container
> ./AM-100
>
> Step Five. It booted - right?
>
> If not contact me & I'll try to help you figure out why...
>
>
> OPERATION
>
> The window you run this in (msdos? cygwin? xterm?) is probably defaulted
> to 25 lines x 80 columns. You need to shrink it to 24x80 (or vue and fix
> won't scroll correctly). One reason I don't like W98 is I haven't found a
> way to do that there...
>
> If you've other containers (dsk1-container, etal) you can mount and
unmount
> them as you like. Can't change without restarting the emulator thou...
>
> All the control keys should work. Esc should work. The Arrow keys,
Insert,
> Delete, Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn should work - at least as I would want
> them to!!
>
> Watch out for ALT keys. ALT C means quit the emulator. ALT T toggles
> instruction tracing. ALT S toggles instruction stepping (which doesn't
work
> in this release). See PS3.C for all the key mappings.
>
> Console output is to STDOUT. Traces go to STDERR. So if you want to try
a
> trace but don't want it mixed with your screen, start the emulator with
>
> ./AM-100 2>AM-100.log
>
> Then all the trace output goes into a file. Watch out - it gets huge very
> very fast. Actually there is also a "user" trace facility, but I'm not
> ready to try and document it yet.
>
> There are some other tricks you can play with STDOUT and STDERR. One is
to
> TEE the STDOUT so that all your console activity gets copied into a file.
> Like this:
>
> ./AM-100 | tee AM-100.lst
> or:
> ./AM-100 2>AM-100.log | tee AM-100.lst
>
> CUT and PASTE works with the STDOUT console window. Access them by
clicking
> on the little icon on the left of the window bar. They are under 'edit'.
> So copy that big basic program off your real machine and paste it into
AMOS
> basic (or edit) (or whatever).
>
> DO NOT USE DIRSEQ. It scrambles directories. I will track that down and
> fix it for the next release.
>
>
> PERFORMANCE
>
> Performance has not been a design consideration. There are dozens of
places
> it could be dramatically improved. My judgment is that's not worth the
> effort. But judge for yourself. On a Pentium 166 laptop with linux 6.2
it
> seems pretty close to what I remember my AM-100 being able to do. The
ways
> that AMOS loops when it doesn't have work are converted into sleeps, so
it's
> pretty low impact even on an old slow box.
>
> Of course on a 2.4 gig p4 it screams. Certainly much faster than the
> AM-1000 I traded in my old AM-100 to buy, but I've no idea how it compares
> to modern systems.
>
> Maybe someone will run some benchmarks???
>
>
> WHAT IS CHANGED/ADDED TO AMOS 5.0?
>
> Not much. The system.mon is a standard mongen of sysbsw.mon and my own
disk
> driver vdk.dvr[1,6]. I patched ps3.idv[1,6] to create ps3new.idv[1,6].
> Ansi.tdv[1,6] is a hack of a vt100 driver I wrote years ago.
System.ini[1,4]
> is a demonstration of bank switched memory. Spoolr.ini[1,4] is just a way
> to test lptspl with output to the console.
>
> Source for vdk.dvr, ps3new.idv and ansi.tdv are not provided simply
because
> I haven't had time. vkd is a one-instruction link to the container file
> disk system in hwassist.c. ps3new is just a branch back to output all
> waiting chars at once instead of just one per clock tick - a performance
> improvement. Ansi.tdv is just an ugly hack for the tcrt calls - the more
> difficult input processing is handled in the ps3.c module of the emulator.
>
>
> WHAT DO I **KNOW** DOES NOT WORK?
>
> Aside from DIRSEQ most stuff seems to work. LISP and PASCAL may not work
> but I know so little about them I'm not certain.
>
> Format 11 instructions (floating point) have only been working a few days.
> They are probably really sick and I just haven't noticed yet. But enjoy
> basic until they bite you!
>
> I also have pretty good reason to think PS.V handling (and 'over/under
flow'
> in general) is not quite right. What the book says is supposed to happen
is
> at odds with what diagnostics check for and what known running programs
do!
>
>
> HOW TO REPORT A NEW BUG
>
> Send me an email (mike(a)otterway.com) telling me what you did, what
happened,
> and why you don't think that should have happened. For example: "I
compiled
> and ran xyz.bas and it crashed saying it couldn't open file aaa.bbb, but
> aaa.bbb was there like it was supposed to be and this program and file
work
> on my real AM-100". So far I'm pretty prompt getting back to people who
> tell me about problems, hopefully that will continue...
>
>
> SOFTWARE DONATIONS
>
> Were you a software developer in the AM-100 heydays? Still have a copy of
> your pride and joy laying around? Why not let others remember with you!
> Let me post a copy for use with the emulator. All donations welcome!
>
>
> CREDITS
>
> A number of people have helped and/or inspired me to write this thing.
>
> There's Jim Battle, who's built web pages and emulators for several
machines
> including the Processor Technology SOL-20 (see
> http://www.thebattles.net/sol20/sol.html) . We share an interest in
> Processor Tech hardware and software and I really admire the way he has
> pulled all that arcane stuff together.
>
> There's Roger Bowler (etal) and the Hercules project (IBM mainframe
> emulator, see http://www.conmicro.cx/hercules). I spent a lot of my
career
> as an OS sysprog, and what that team of people have done is just
> magnificant. Many design elements of my emulator come from them - I even
> borrowed their use of the Q license!
>
> There's Harvey, a guy who saved some of my old books for 20+ years in his
> garage. Some were manuals for my old AM-100! There's Mike, who still has
a
> running AM-100, and was good enough to send me a copy of his wd16 manual.
> There's Rhett who found me a really clean complete copy of amos. There's
> Joe, another guy with a running AM-100 who sent me an assembled copy of
the
> cpu diagnostic and worked with me to get it to run without a monitor. And
> of course there's Alex who has given permission to distribute amos along
> with the emulator so more people can enjoy it.
>
>
>
Hi Pat,
I'm assuming that your laser is helium-neon laser. If so, then if it's 23 years old it almost certainly has what they refer to as a soft seal between the electrodes and glass tube. The problem with the soft sealed lasers is that the helium atoms are small enough that they slowly leak out of the seal. When they do, the mixture ratio changes and the ignition and operating voltage goes up until the laser will no longer operates. That's what it sounds like is happening with your laser. Your's sounds like it's it border line in that the PSU firing voltage can make it fire but the operating voltage isn't high enough to keep it operating.
Further you can't just use a resistor as a dummy load. The laser tube is similar to neon and floresent lights in that it has a negative resistance. That is it has a certain amount of resistance until it fires and then the resistance decreases dramaticly. You have to use a ballast with such devices or else the current will increase drasticly and almost instantly burn out the device. The ignition voltage will be on the order of 20,000 volts but the operating voltage will be roughly 12,000 to 14,000 volts.
Be careful using a scope around these things. It probably isn't made to handle nearly the kind of voltages involved in the laser. You need a good high voltage probe for checking these things. You can use one made for TV repair. They're fairly easy to find and are reasonably priced.
If you send me the brand and model tube I may be able to tell you if it's a soft sealed tube and other details.
Joe
At 04:38 PM 10/30/02 -0500, you wrote:
>I know this is a bit OT, becuase it's not really computer related, but the
>hardware is at least 23 years old, so that's my excuse for posting to the
>list...
>
>I've got a 35mW HeNe Laser + Power supply that I picked up today for next
>to nothing. It seems to be having some problems - the laser (somtimes)
>blinks a few times when I first turn it on, and then stops. From the
>sound of the power supply it's either a loose connection (which I doubt
>after opening it up and taking a good look around) or there's a problem
>with the power supply.
>
>Now, I've never really worked on a HV power supply before, and I'm trying
>to be careful when I play with things. First off, does anyone have a
>general idea of what sized dummy load ("resisitor") I should try haning
>off of the HV output to properly load it? I noticed that the laser tube
>has 3x27kohm resistors in series, would a couple watt approx 81kohm
>resistor be a good idea?
>
>Also, does anyone have an idea for a failure mode to look for? I've got
>an O'scope, dmm, and various other tools at my disposal, but no
>'authentic' HV test/mesurement gear.
>
>I'm just looking for general guidelines.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Pat
>--
>"The Microsoft/IBM FORTRAN was adequate for teaching FORTRAN 77. But the
>performance was AMAZING! It could actually take longer to run a benchmark
>like sieve of Erastothanes with compiled FORTRAN than with interpreted
>BASIC."
> -- Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)
>http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2040637020924.gif
>
>
>
I've got a brand new AT&T 458 Daisy Wheel printer, that doesn't have a daisy
wheel. A quick glance at Google doesn't turn up anyone who sells apropos
wheels. There is a theory that the 458 is a rebadged Qume. Does anyone
know where to get 458 wheels, or what would be an equivalent printer that I
could find wheels for?
Ken
Hi,
Cleaning my vt-240, I noticed that there is an "expansion" connector
inside, with enough space for a pretty big board.
Anybody out there has an idea what it was for ?
Documentation ?
cheers
> I have been looking at MS Visual Studio for some time and
> NOT buying mainly because it seems like there is no choice
> in the matter. Where are the other good prog. environments?
> The ad for MS VStudio shows a guy with serious posture
> problems (get it? No backbone.) and I'm not too ready for
> that experience. Sun/Solaris/Intel has been phased out.
> Phillippe is sleeping with the starfishes.
> I guess that leaves only something for Linux.
Well... its for the Mac, but can do Win32 as well... I use REALbasic.
Think of it as a Mac version of MS Visual Basic, without the MS
attachments.
You write everything on the Mac, and it will compile for Mac PPC (Classic
and Carbon), and Win32. (The v5 due out some time next year will have a
Windows IDE so you can write on Win and compile for all 3 like you can
currently do on the Mac). They claim future versions will be able to
compile for Linux and PalmOS as well.
All in all, it isn't a bad getup.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
>Are they ALL DX2-50's? I'm looking for a DX-50.
I'll double check, but yeah, I am pretty sure these 4 are DX2-50.
I also have a small stack of 486 CPUs (cpu chip only), and there might be
a regular DX in there (I know there are some SX and DX2's... as well as a
few that the chip is glued to the heatsink, so I'm not sure what they are)
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Here's the reply I got:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 11:55:54 -0400
From: Sorcipit <sorcipit(a)csportneuf.qc.ca>
To: Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM 5100
I already have an offer of $ 1,000 USD plus shipping on that system. Im of
course considering all offer on the 5100.
Thx.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
And thusly Jens =?iso-8859-1?Q?Sch=F6nfeld?= spake:
> At 10:49 AM 10/31/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >Am I correct in saying that the C1 now can "be" many other
> >non-Commodore systems instead of a system with a native mode and just
> >the C64 mode?
>
> Right. I'm really looking forward to playing Atari 2600 games on it, and to
> turn it into my first machine ever, the Sinclair ZX-81.
>
> I visited Jeri and Courtney this summer in Miami, and only a day after I
> left, Jeri wrote to me and said that she had produced a version that makes
> the board a VIC-20.
>
> Although Jeri never really told the Schneider-CPC guys that she would help
> them making a new machine (they announced it, but did not get her
> permission), her board is now the "universal Retro-computer replacement". I
> guess Schneider CPC is a fairly low priority, 'cause neither me, nor any of
> my friends ever owned one, but it's possible. Just download a file from the
> internet, write it to the CF card, plug it in and you have a new machine.
> That's what "reconfigurable computer" is about.
>
> ciao,
> --
> Jens Sch=F6nfeld
